Raksha Mantri calls for steps to develop defense technologies within country

Raksha Mantri said the Defence Investor Cell established a year ago in the Ministry has processed nearly 550 queries and grievances.

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh has voiced the government’s desire to encourage private industry investment in defense sector while also strengthening defense PSUs and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). Addressing CEOs of top Defence and Aerospace companies at a roundtable with the theme ‘Make in India in Defence Industry’ here today, Shri Rajnath Singh said defense companies have huge opportunities in contributing to the domestic market in addition to exports.

Raksha Mantri said the strategic partnership model has been notified to establish defense manufacturing infrastructure and supply chain through which Indian companies could choose a partner through a competitive and transparent process. He added that FDI policy in the defense sector has been liberalized.

Regarding the offset processing, Shri Rajnath Singh said the Ministry has set up an end-to-end offset processing portal through which proposals of value USD 1.5 billion were processed. Entry barriers for MSMEs were also reduced and this resulted in the doubling of defense licenses issued from 215 in 2014 to 440 in 2019.

Raksha Mantri said the Defence Investor Cell established a year ago in the Ministry has processed nearly 550 queries and grievances.

While highlighting various measures initiated by the government to encourage defense exports, Shri Rajnath Singh urged the industry to work towards increasing exports to friendly countries. He said the export procedure has been simplified and defense procurement procedure was revised in 2016 to encourage indigenous design, development, and manufacture.

Raksha Mantri said self-reliance in defense sector would not be possible without the development of indigenous technology and called for steps to develop related technologies within the country. He said there is a greater possibility now because the contribution of digital technologies in the defense sector is on the upswing and India has strong capabilities to develop such technologies where startups have a significant role to play. 

Shri Rajnath Singh said the Indian defense industry’s production was Rs 80,000 crore in 2018-19 of which Rs 16,000 crore was the contribution from the private sector.

Raksha Mantri said our nation is confidently scaling new heights based on strong political leadership strengthened by the strategic economy. He called for a multi-pronged approach to achieve the aim of ‘Make in India’.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Secretary (Defence Production) Dr. Ajay Kumar said the roundtable has been organised to obtain views and suggestions from the industry to further improve the systems and procedures in the defense sector.

Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, senior officials of the Ministry, Defence PSUs, OFB and CEOs & representatives of top Defence manufacturing companies were present on the occasion.

(With Inputs from PIB)